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Conservative group targets Dewhurst in Texas Senate race

AUSTIN — The conservative activist group Club for Growth shifted its focus to Texas on Wednesday after playing a major role in unseating U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana’s Republican primary.

Club for Growth President Chris Chocola announced his group would spend an additional $1 million on television ads in Dallas, Houston and Austin labeling Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst a moderate. The anti-tax, limited-government organization has endorsed former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz against the front-runner in the U.S. Senate race and had previously run a number of anti-Dewhurst cable television ads.

“Texans looking for a principled defender of economic freedom should vote for Ted Cruz in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate,” Chocola said in a statement.

Dewhurst has rejected charges he has been a moderate since becoming lieutenant governor in 2003, touting his record as a conservative businessman. In this predominantly Republican state, he has kept to party orthodoxy and reduced per capita taxation.

Instead, Dewhurst has attacked Cruz for serving as an appellate attorney for a Chinese company found guilty of illegally appropriating intellectual property from an American firm. He also questions Cruz’s lack of experience since the 41-year-old never held elected office before.

Club for Growth’s announcement came after the group spent $1.7 million to help defeat Lugar, who had been in the Senate for 36 years and was a noted expert on foreign affairs. He lost to Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, a tea party favorite who won endorsements from national conservative groups.

Cruz shares many of the same endorsements as Mourdock. Dewhurst has won endorsements from almost every important political action committee in the state.

The two men are among nine candidates running for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. The other top candidates according to polls include former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and former ESPN football analyst Craig James.

The Cruz campaign does not expect to win the May 29 primary but is competing to force the better-known Dewhurst into a runoff on July 31.

While Lugar’s defeat is certainly a warning to the Dewhurst campaign, the parallels are not perfect. Lugar is 80 years old and the definition of a moderate, establishment Washington insider. None of the Texas candidates have any experience in Washington, and the top four have struggled to find any substantive differences on the issues. So far most of the attacks have been on personal style and experience.